It has long been known to clean or sterilize a surface or item by spraying an antiseptic liquid onto a cloth or directly onto a surface or item, and wiping the surface or item with the sprayed cloth is only a temporary solution to the problem of microbe contamination. Such antiseptic liquids commonly include alcohol or alcohol-based compositions, which are well-known to have anti-bacterial properties. Spraying such compositions on a cloth and using the sprayed cloth to wipe a surface, or spraying a surface with such a composition and wiping it, acts in two ways. First, the contact of the spray or the sprayed area of the cloth against the surface to be wiped results in a contact-killing of a percentage of microbes on the surface. Second, the sprayed composition that transfers or lies on the surface maintains the antibiotic effect for as long as the wet composition remains. However, given the high volatility of alcohol, the composition remains on the surface only for a matter of seconds or perhaps minutes. Such compositions are frequently not evenly spread across a surface, with some areas receiving a substantial amount of the composition, and other receiving a small amount or none at all. Once the composition is gone, e.g. by evaporation, its antibiotic effect is naturally also gone.
Such antiseptic compositions have also been applied to wipes or disposable towelettes. Such towelettes have an amount of an alcohol solution or composition applied to them, and they are stored in a package for individual retrieval and use. The towelettes can be used to wipe a surface, tool or other item to kill topical microbes. Such protection lasts only while any composition that may transfer to the wiped surface remains on the surface in a form permitting it to chemically affect microbes.
There have also been compositions developed for application directly in a manufacturing process to provide anti-microbial protection for products. For example, the active ingredient 3-(trihydroxysilyl) propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride is provided for industrial uses as a thick suspension, and may be used in or during manufacture of clothing, building materials or other products, so that the products have a resistance or shield from bacterial or other microbial attachment to the product. These compositions are specifically formulated for application in manufacturing the particular products to which they are applied. It has been reported that the antimicrobial protection provided by 3-(trihydroxysilyl) propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride as applied in manufacturing lasts over very long periods and through regular washing of the product. That is, the protection remains fixed to the article to which it is applied.
Currently there are are no products available that are used to transfer the antimicrobial properties of organo-functional silane-based molecules such as 3-(trihydroxysilyl) propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride from a carrier object to which they are applied to another object or surface. Compositions suitable for such transfers have not been found. There is a need for products suited to easy transfer of such compositions in consumer-oriented or similar contexts.